Saint Christopher Taking Leave of the King Who Feared Satan; Saint Christopher and His Converts

Martin de Soria · 1480–85

Medium

Tempera with oil glazes on panel

Original size

154.5 × 87.4 cm (60 3/4 × 34 3/8 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Italian Renaissance

This double-panel narrative from late fifteenth-century Aragon captures the legend of Saint Christopher with the flat, luminous intensity that defines the final flowering of Spanish Gothic painting. Martin de Soria worked in Zaragoza during a period when Aragonese painters were absorbing Flemish influences while remaining rooted in the Italo-Gothic tradition. His use of tempera with oil glazes — layering translucent oil over an opaque tempera ground — allowed him to achieve the jewel-like colour saturation and crisp drapery folds that give his saints such striking presence. The gold tooling in the halos and the architectural framing devices reflect the retablo format common to Aragonese altarpiece commissions of the era. The work is part of a larger altarpiece cycle dedicated to Saint Christopher, now divided between the Art Institute of Chicago and other collections, suggesting it once formed part of a substantial devotional commission for a church or private chapel. Our hand-painted oil reproduction translates Soria's precise, gold-rich palette and narrative detail onto canvas with the same care and material presence the original demands — a faithful rendering meant to be lived with, not just looked at.